Drug Infested Nation

  

      I had an interesting conversation with a lady recently.  She was telling me about her granddaughter who was suffering from acid reflux, so the doctor put her on Zantac. The thing that really troubled me was that the granddaughter was only 4 months old. The baby also had to be held upright for 1/2 hour after every bottle and could not lay on her tummy at all.   Actually, I was more than troubled,  I was floored. I knew that drugs were a problem, but I didn't know that we were now giving them to infants. Go to your local pharmacy and the place is overrun with people waiting for their "fix".  We have become a nation that is driven by our symptoms and what we can do to cover them up.  No longer do doctors seek to heal the cause of a problem, they just prescribe a drug to hide the symptoms.  We hear that something is approved by the Financially Driven Administration and the American Money Association so we hurry and go get some to see if it can help us.  These government agencies are not interested in our general well being, neither are they concerned about our health. They are driven by money.  Every day we hear about drugs (approved by those groups!)  that have been recalled because they had certain "unexpected" side effects.  We see ads from law firms wanting to defend you and help you sue for serious and often devastating side effects.

     So, I did some research on Zantac.  Very interesting study. Simply stated,  Zantac is a drug that reduces the amount of acid that your stomach produces.   Many people suffer from what is called an over abundance of stomach acid. After doing some more research, I found out why.  The stomach has a "door" on the top end called the LES (lower esophageal sphincter).  The door opens to allow food to enter the stomach and closes to keep the acid in there as it churns and "eats" the food.  When the stomach has LOW acidity, the LES opens and remains open!!! Probably because it knows that it needs some good acidic fruits and vegetables to replenish it!  So, people with acid reflux disease actually suffer from LOW acidity!  Taking a drug to reduce stomach acid only aggravates the problem.  Sad, sad, sad.  If they could only start eating raw apple or pineapple with every meal, they would probably see a great change. I believe that acid reflux is also caused by overeating...another major problem in our country.  Acid reflux in infants is most likely due to poor eating habits by mommy before baby is born, and also a result of using formula rather than breast feeding.

     There is also the problem of drug side effects.  Listed on Zantac's website are these general side effects:  increases risk of pneumonia, chest pain, fever, shortness of breath, green or yellow mucous, easily bruised, unusual weakness, fast or slow heart rate, vision problems, sore throat, headache, sever blistering peeling red skin rash, nausea, stomach pain, loss of appetite, yellowing of the skin or eyes. There were also "major" side effects listed.  They were rather scary. I think I would rather have acid reflux than the above side effects.  Oh, it also mentioned that it should not be taken more than 14 days in a row. Hmmm.  How many people have been taking it every day for years???
     I just found this today.  It was a report given on October 25, 2011. Very timely topic.

     "Stomach acid might cause a lot of people a lot of pain, but it also serves an important purpose in the body: it stops incipient infections in their tracks. Now, a new study says that medications that suppress the production of stomach acid can make people more susceptible to complications of gastrointestinal infections, including raising the risk of dying.
The study examined hospital patients infected with the drug-resistant bacteria Clostridium difficile, which is infamous for causing diarrhea in hospitalized patients and responsible for more deaths in the United States than all other intestinal infections combined.

In the study, patients who had recently taken prescription acid suppressants were almost five times more likely to die from their C. difficile infections than those who hadn't taken such drugs.
Previous studies linked the use of acid suppressants with an increased risk of becoming infected with C. difficile , but "this is the first study to have found an association between use of antacids and increase of mortality," said study author Dr. Edith R. Lederman, an infectious disease specialist at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego.
The report was published Oct. 5 in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases."
  

      Wow, that was pretty eye opening.  By the way, stomach acid also digests your food, though I bet you already knew that!   It is an extremely important part of your well being.  Reducing your stomach acid is not going to help you.  Changing your eating habits and adding more raw fruits and vegetables to your diet will greatly help.  I implore you, don't fall for the habit of going to the medicine cabinet for symptoms, find out what is causing it instead of just covering it up!  I'm sure there will be more posts on various symptoms (and their accompaning drugs!) in the future!